The Ultimate Dream Computer

LOL ONLY a 7900GTX...

 

I know, its only an entry level card, but it'll do!

 

Don't rub it in...

 

Motherboard and memory turned up today.
Have removed and cleaned the heat sinks and replaced the crappy compound with New Zalman liquid paste which brushes on, rather than spreads.

I can confirm that the compound from the factory is truly crap, and definitely worth replacing.

All fitted back, CPU in and memory fitted.
Backing up old system tomorrow, ready for the new build, so should hopefully have it running by Thursday (work load depending) then the fun part begins.

I know this is not exactly new info for all, but it was for me as I have only used nforce chipsets for the last few years.
But there is a mod already for any chipset to work in SLi, so the option to add another 7900GTX is a real possibility even on an Intel based board; I hadn't even considered it before on this board.
7950GX2 not yet supported, but not too long!

 

BigDK , keep in mind the 7950 GX2 takes up TWO PCI slots

 

Theres also no watercooling option I know of, so its out the question for now.

 

Had a pain in the rear day building this system.
The Hiper-type-r 580W PSU decided to die on me when powered off in the old system, so took hours working out it was that not the board or CPU, as the board led was on.
Finally the system is up and currently loading windows updates.
Ran my first super-pi at stock clocks 2.4GHz DDR800, certainly puts the other system in the shade.
1M took 21.343 secs and 2M took 51.156 secs with updates loading and explorer running.
Will post screen captures after I get the rest of software loaded over the next day or so.
So although I'm currently running a 400W Jeantech supply from the local PC world until I RMA the Hiper, I'm so far quite happy and quite optimistic for the benches it will achieve.

 

Heres latest pics of super-pi and setup at stock.
Temps CPU 27`C idle Mobo 35`C on air at present.
Will let things settle for a few days before I start to wind it up.

 

Was it you who mentioned a failed one before? I hope there aren't two cases of failed ones at aD! I rave about them at the moment (touches wood). I no longer rave about Antecs because of a catastrophic failure of a new unit with an Aria case my friend bought.

 

Its the first Hiper failure I've heard of.
But on a plus point.
I spoke direct to the support at Hiper and they gave me an RMA within minutes on the phone, and confirmed they have a policy of just swapping whatever they get back with a new one (same day dispatch).
If you send the main unit, you get a new one, if you send the whole box with cables, you get a whole pack replacement.
Its been a very stable PSU while it worked, and the cable management is easy, it looks as though the customer support is also very good, and the warranty is pretty good at three years.
These things happen, but its when you need support you see how good a company is, as I've also dealt with plenty of companies that have totally crap support.
Should have replacement by Tuesday/Wednesday.

 

Even Rolls Royces break down..LOL!!

 

I heard that they used to provide blankets for the RR cars when they break down.
Onwers were supposed to cover them over on the road side so passing motorists wouldn't see that one of their cars was less than perfect.
Maybe I'll put a tea towel over the PSU!

 

Or how about one of those tea cosy's they used to have for the old boil on the stove kettles...ROFL!!

 

Food for thought:

AN SLI CERTIFIED POWER SUPPLY WILL ALWAYS POWER HIGH-END GRAPHICS CARDS?
We went through three power supplies before we found one that consistently worked with these high-end graphics cards and an FX-60. We initially started with a Silverstone 600W SLI certified power supply, but running some games resulted in the system powering down under full load. We next moved onto a higher rated Thermaltake PurePower SLI certified 680W unit. But while most games ran most of the time, the system would still occasionally shut down. Finally, we ended up using PC Power and Cooling's massive TurboCool 850 SSI. This just goes to show that if you really want to build something that pushes the bleeding edge, make sure you have the right power supply.
ExtremeTech Review Feb 12, 2006

 

Strangely it was after adding a secondary power supply to the system that the Hiper died on me a few weeks later.
I've also got a FSP Booster X3 powering just the 7900 GTX, so its load was lower than it had been for a long time.
Having said that, it was certainly pushed before hand with the power on the FX60 alone at 110W when fully clocked, and another 100+ W on the video card which is also overclocked.
But it shouldn't have pulled more than 530W total.

 

BigDK,
A lesser power supply would have died a long time ago.
Have you used the extreme psu calculator?
Add in the details of your configuration and see what your system was drawing.Maybe it might have been more than you thought??

http://www.extreme.outervision.com/psucalculator.jsp

 

That's promising with the support anyway, I'm glad about that.

 

It was using the extreme psu calculator that I came up with the figures listed.
I found some other calculators still circulating on the net, talking about s3 savage graphics cards, 128mb ram etc... (slightly out of date).
It is a top psu that past with flying colours in all the tests I read up on before buying it.

Still waiting for the replacement psu to turn up, I'll really start to push the new system then.
Not going at it too hard yet, as I want to give things a chance to bed in first.
Got super-pi down to 17.484 secs at just under 2.88GHz DDR 960, this Arctic freezer cooler is the dogs b*****ks, at 2.88 it was till running at 27`c at idle.

PCMark05 scores 8859

 

Yeah they are good. I'm not too familiar with PCMark, can you try for a 3DMark03 and 3DMark05 as well? I'd be particularly interested in the 3DMark03 score...

 

I've got 05 loaded, I'll download 03 tomorrow night and give it a run.
I'm on my laptop now, and that does't score too well at all.
I cranked the PC up to 3.06 earlier 340x9, got super-pi down to 16.5 secs, but then the system crashed with a cblank screen after about 10 mins.
Couldn't be bothered to start looking too closely at what caused it, so have taken it back to 2.4 ddr800 until next run.
CPU was still at 29`c and NB was 40`, probably need to up the voltage a bit more somewhere.
Will run it through 03 at 2.88 again before I start looking at what needs changing after 3ghz is clocked up.